Absencing and Haunting in Semiotic Landscapes

This book offers a profound interdisciplinary exploration of haunting, absencing, and the violent transformation of words into voids. It argues that the erasure of language is never simple: when words are replaced by silence, not only messages but also entire worlds and histories disappear. Focusing on the Russian occupation of Qırım-Crimea and the ongoing war against Ukraine, the book reveals how linguistic, epistemic, and physical violence intertwine, urging scholars to look beyond words when studying violence in its many guises. Central to this inquiry is ghost ethnography, a qualitative methodological intervention that foregrounds the researcher’s embodied responses to the haunting effects of violence. By attending to sensations, memories, and affects that exceed language, ghost ethnography recognises the body as a site of knowing and care. It makes visible how absenced semiotic landscapes persist through traces, echoes, and absent presences. Conceptualising semiotic landscapes as temporally dynamic, Volvach shows that absencing and haunting not only transform meanings, memories, and worlds but also reveal the operations of violence, making clear who inflicts harm and who bears its weight. The book invites readers to listen to ghosts that inhabit wounded places and to sense what lies beyond words. It will be of interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, sociolinguistics, social semiotics, anthropology, and memory studies.